And the hoarseness of his voice, I’ve never heard him speak so hoarsely—
“Look at me.”
I don’t want to. I can’t. I’m too close, too exposed, too—
“Look at me, Tiara.”
And because he says my name like that, I do.
His eyes are dark on mine, and they’re asking me something, and I don’t know what he’s asking, but I give it to him anyway, because I don’t know how not to.
Whatever it was, he sees it.
And that’s when he takes me over.
His hand doesn’t stop, his mouth doesn’t stop, his eyes don’t leave mine, and I can feel him watching me come apart, and something in me breaks open, and I hear myself make a sound that is nothing like me and everything like me at the same time.
I shatter.
That’s the only word for it. I shatter under him, with him, and as the wave washes through me I feel tears on my face, actual tears, and I don’t know where they came from or why they’re here, and I can’t stop them.
Oh no.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
If only he had just taken my virginity.
If only.
Because that I could have survived.
But instead it’s so much worse.
He hasn’t taken my virginity.
He’s taken myheart.
And when he says my name—
“Tiara.”
He says it in a way no one’s ever said my name before, and maybe no one ever will, and the sound of it...
It has my gaze slowly lifting to his, and as soon as our eyes meet—
I can’t remember feeling this scared.
Because in his eyes, I see the truth.
He knows I’m in love with him.
